Jasprit Bumrah to lead India in Rohit Sharma’s absence: Gautam Gambhir (Twitter)
India captain Rohit Sharma is set to miss the first Test of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 due to personal issues, and the biggest concern circulating around this was the player who would captain the Indian team in his absence from the game.
Head Coach of the men’s team Gautam Gambhir, in a press conference on Monday, November 11, stated that the designated vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah is going to lead the side in when Rohit Sharma is unavailable.
“Bumrah is the vice-captain, so obviously he is going to be the captain in Rohit Sharma’s absence,” said Gambhir at the presser in Mumbai.
Bumrah is the vice-captain, so obviously he is going to be the captain when Rohit Sharma is not there: Gautam Gambhir #BGT
— चिरकुट ज़िंदगी (@Chirayu_Jain26) November 11, 2024
KL Rahul can bat in the top order: Gambhir
Gambhir further stated that the availability of Rohit for the remaining series is not yet out in public, and will be confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) before the tour commences. This has given rise to yet another concern regarding the strongest contender for the opening position when the senior opener is not on the team.
Meanwhile, the head coach also mentioned that dynamic wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul is among the many options the Indian team has for the opener’s slot if Rohit Sharma is unavailable.
“KL Rahul can bat in the top order, he can bat at 3, he can play at 6 – so you need a lot of talent to do all these jobs & he keeps in ODIs – imagine how many countries have players like KL played in and he is definitely going to be one of the options if Rohit is not available,” Gambhir added.
India squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Washington Sundar.